Famous Americans: A Directory of Museums, Historic Sites, and Memorials

People who are considered “famous” can be found in many different fields. This book describes 472 museums, historic sites, and memorials about 409 people in 26 categories:

Actors Explorers Playwrights
Architects First Ladies Poets
Artists/Sculptors Frontiersmen Presidents
Athletes Journalists/Publishers Public Officials/
Author/Writers Medical Innovators Political Figures
Aviators/Astronauts Military Figures Religious Leaders
Business/Industrial/Financial Musicians/Singers/ Scientists/Engineers/
Figures Composers Inventors
Educators Outlaws Social Activists
Entertainers Patriotic Figures Socialites


They include such people as Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Georgia O’Keeffe, Norman Rockwell, Ernest Hemingway, Edgar Allan Poe, Sinclair Lewis, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Will Rogers, Daniel Boone, Buffalo Bill Cody, William Randolph Hearst, Douglas MacArthur, Robert E. Lee, Louis Armstrong, Elvis Presley, Betsy Ross, Carl Sandburg, Jesse James, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Webster, Billy Graham, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jane Addams, Frederick Douglass, Doris Duke, Helen Keller, Wilbur and Orville Wright, and all the Presidents, including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Among the sites of the museums and other tributes are such places as the Katharine Hepburn Museum, Thomas Hart Benton Home and Studio, Babe Ruth Museum, Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House, Mark Twain House and Museum, Charles A. Lindberg Historic Site, Lincoln Memorial, Morgan Library and Museum, Kit Carson Home and Museum, Clara Barton National Historic Site, Stonewall Jackson’s Home, Marian Anderson Residence/Museum and Birthplace, Stephen Foster Memorial Museum, Tennessee Williams Birthplace/Home, Mount Vernon: George Washington’s Estate and Gardens, Roger Williams National Memorial, Rachel Carson Homestead, Rosa Parks Library and Museum, and Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.

In addition to the chapters and directory, the book includes a geographical guide to the sites, selected bibliography, index, and 29 photographs.